Notable Quotables: Special Obama Scandal Edition

Just posted to MRC.org this Memorial Day, the latest edition of MRC's Notable Quotables newsletter, recounting the most outrageous quotes from the liberal media. This week: the media warn that "voters will punish" Republicans if they "overplay their hand" and actually investigate the multiple scandals swirling around the Obama administration.

At the same time, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell uniquely insists that there's "nothing wrong" about the IRS targeting the Tea Party, a view which makes him more extreme than most of his left-wing MSNBC colleagues, while the always-sycophantic Chris Matthews has this advice for President Obama: "Stop taking advice from sycophants."

The best quotes (including five videos) are below the jump; the full edition is posted here.

“Voters Will Punish” GOP If They Pursue Obama’s Scandals

Co-host Savannah Guthrie: “I read a headline yesterday that said Republicans see blood in the water, that they see a president who’s very vulnerable politically. Is there a danger that they will overreach?”Correspondent Chuck Todd: “There is. I mean, that’s what happened to Republicans in 1998 with Bill Clinton. And if all of Congress is focusing on hearings to do scandals, the voters will punish them. They’ve done it in the past.”— NBC’s Today, May 16.

“The Republicans are pushing forward on this. Is it possible they may overplay their hand and somehow squander what they think is opportunity?”— Co-host Charlie Rose to White House correspondent Major Garrett on CBS This Morning, May 17.

Never Heard of Fast & Furious? Solyndra?

“All of this comes as a White House that takes pride in being scandal-free has been hammered by a series of controversies....”— Correspondent Jonathan Karl on ABC’s World News, May 14.

“This administration has been described, I don’t even know how many times, as remarkably scandal-free. But when you get into the second term of an administration, there’s often some dirty laundry that comes out."— Host Steve Inskeep on NPR's Morning Edition, May 13.

“What’s so sad about it is the President has been very rightfully proud of the lack of scandal in his administration so far.”— Time assistant managing editor Rana Foroohar on MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner, May 13.

Sycophantic Chris Advises: “Stop Taking Advice from Sycophants”

Host Chris Matthews: “President Obama has got to stop taking advice from sycophants who keep telling him he’s right and only they can be trusted. He needs to act. He needs to fire people....”Bloomberg’s Jonathan Alter: “A lot of them [Obama’s aides] are young. Some of them are very smart and talented. But they’re all in awe of the President. They have an unhealthy love for him.”— MSNBC’s Hardball, May 14.

MSNBC Host: “Nothing Wrong” About IRS Targeting Tea Party

“I do not believe what the IRS was reported to have been doing is an outrage. I believe the IRS agents in this case did nothing wrong. Let me say it again. You won’t hear it anywhere else. The IRS agents did nothing wrong. They were simply trying to enforce the law as the IRS has understood it since 1959.”— Host Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC’s The Last Word, May 15.

“And it is very clear that if the words ‘Tea Party,’ or the name of any political party at all appears in the title of your 501(c)(4), you absolutely do not qualify for 501(c)(4) status under the law, and you should be challenged.”— O’Donnell on the same show the next night.

Scandals Just Fuel for “Racist” Conservative “Haters”

“The problem is there are people in this country — maybe 10%, I don’t know what the number, maybe 20% on a bad day — who want this President to have an asterisk next to his name in the history books, that he really wasn’t President....They can’t stand the idea that he is President, and a piece of it is racism. Not that somebody in one racial group doesn’t like somebody in another racial group. So what? It is the sense that the white race must rule. That’s what racism is. And they can’t stand the idea that a man who is not white is President.”— Chris Matthews appearing as a guest on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation, May 15.

“Now they’ve got the ‘lamestream media’ also reporting on these stories, they are so excited. They’re in hog heaven. They think this is the end of Barack Obama, and they’re going to ride it for all it’s worth....This is about gut instinct and feeling and emotion. And the only thing that conservatives and Republicans are sure of is that they hate Barack Obama, that their base hates Barack Obama, and that up to now, the media has refused to see the monster that is Barack Obama.”— Joy-Ann Reid, editor of the NBC-owned TheGrio.com, on MSNBC’s The Last Word, May 16.

Lying About Benghazi = Trying to “Control the Message”

“It’s obvious that someone mishandled something. It’s obvious, but it is looking pretty partisan when you look at all of the talking points that are being used. And let me ask this question, because the accusation is that the Obama administration in some way tried to change the talking points or water them down. And my question is, and I’m being honest about this, what administration, Ana, doesn’t try to control the message, no matter what it is?”— Anchor Don Lemon to GOP strategist Ana Navarro on CNN Newsroom, May 12.

Matthews Sobers Up: Obama “Crazy” to Blame Press

MSNBC daytime host Alex Wagner: “I think his [Obama’s] own personal distaste for Washington, and his sense that the media, the right, the, sort of, chattering class has been unfair about his legislative record and accomplishments, sort of makes him want to flip the off switch sometimes, and sort of just turn the lights out for the room and say, ‘I’ve done so much for this country. Why do I need to get involved in the mud pit?’”Host Chris Matthews: “Let me tell you something. The press has generally been pro-Obama. That’s a fact. If he doesn’t think he has gotten good press, he is crazy....This guy has probably gotten the best press since Reagan....I look at the major networks, broadcast nets. I look at us. I don’t see a lot of CNN. Where’s all this antipathy towards Obama?”— Exchange on MSNBC’s Hardball, May 15.

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